Biutiful (2010)

A man finds he only has a few months to live. He is separated from his wife and takes care of their two children. He works supervising the illegal work of illegal immigrants. He reunites with his wife for a while.

Not a very interesting film. It seems to believe that conveying intense emotion is enough to grab a viewer's attention. The plot has some interesting elements, but apparently there was not the will to make them into an exciting whole. Too many subplots lead nowhere  and the main plot (whatever you think it is) doesn't lead anywhere very interesting either. Anyway I gathered from the movie that immigrants are not only good but necessary, because without them who will take care of our children when we die?

Rating: 37

The Pelican Brief (1993)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed, dubbed in Portuguese, on August 15, 2001.

Two Supreme Court justices are executed. A law student does some research work on who might want to get rid of two men who diverged in almost every issue; she comes up with a suspect. She writes a brief detailing how she came to that suspect. After that brief reaches powerful hands, people around her start to die and she must run for her life.

This is a reasonably well-made thriller, but only in a purely mechanical sense. In what regards the plot, the whole thing is very flawed in an essential way. After the law student has divulged her theory to the press, she is no longer a worthwhile target, so the notion that the bad guys would chase her relentlessly and indefinitely is ludicrous. In fact, even before that, they couldn't know who else knew about her findings, or even would come to the same conclusions as her on their own. After all, she used only public information on her research. It is true that, in midfilm, she does come into possession of some relevant material items, but she only gets to that position because she was being chased, so a misconception somehow made the plot become more plausible. But, if you can get past that, the film does move along in an agreeable pace, and many individual sequences are entertaining. The more, say, personal, or emotional, aspect of the characters is a weak spot of the movie, and does not come across as credible. Also, there is a bizarre product placement in action here, where the product is the main actress. Through compliments from at least one other character in the movie, the filmmakers seem to want the audience to believe she is a stunning beauty. By what one reads in the press from that period, and even later, it seems to have worked.

Rating: 42 (unchanged)

Vai que É Mole (1960)

Three friends and partners in crime are released from jail on the same day. One of them receives the news that a relative of his died and named him a guardian of her young son. The chief of their gang wants to use the boy as an assistant in their thieving operations. After one of the three criminals decides to give back to its owner (a chorus girl) a purse they stole from her, the TV station for which she works decides to put him and one of his partners (the boy's father) in a show about honest people. Of course the girl doesn't know that they stole her purse, and they don't tell her either.

Although the plot is weak, relying as it does on every cliché we are used to in Brazilian comedies of that period, the film acquits itself a little better than its similars. It's basically a film for kids, or for adults with a kid's mind, but within that limited scope it manages to develop situations that signal its awareness of the social injustice in Brazil, which was acute in 1960 and still is. The emphasis is on slapstick and the pace is kept in a fast mode, only letting up for the occasional musical number.

Rating: 33

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

A reconstruction of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the events which preceded it.

This is a well-made war drama. It must be said that the first section, so to speak, of the movie, which accounts for about two thirds of it, and which explains how a series of errors on the part of the Americans contributed to the Japanese success, is quite dull, although I wouldn't know how to improve upon it. The last section is considerably more exciting.

Rating: 51

Samson and Delilah (1949)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 (probably) and 1986.

The Hebrew Samson gets involved with a Philistine woman, and then with another. But the Philistines are after him for his violence, and they use the latter of those women to capture him.

This biblical tale is a fantasy on the situation of living as a conquered or oppressed people. Closeness to the ruling ethnicity is at once dangerous and alluring. Many women lived this same dilemma in the war which ended four years prior to this film's release, and the ones who fraternized with the German enemy were shamed and punished. In the case of this movie it is a male who does the reproachable fraternizing. The fantastic element is given by the outstanding individual power of the protagonist. As a visual spectacle I found this film to be quite agreeable. As storytelling goes it does not really stand out.

Rating: 53 (up from 48)

Zé do Periquito (1961)

*spoilers below*

Zé Nó works as a gardener at a high school. He is somewhat infatuated with a girl student named Carmen, and that becomes an object of derision by Mexerico ('Gossip'), one of the boy students. Mexerico suggests to Zé Nó that he quit his job and try to make a fortune at some other line of activity, so that he becomes attractive to Carmen. Zé Nó accepts his suggestion and travels to a small town where he tries to earn a living by playing the barrel organ on the street. One local homeless woman nicknamed Pelanca ('Fold of Skin') approaches him and proposes a partnership which she says will make them rich. Pelanca knows every dirty secret of each person in town, and she helps Zé Nó establish a street commerce of selling little pieces of paper containing 'clairvoyant' information about the 'present, past and future' of each person. The fraud is enhanced by making a parakeet more or less randomly choose with its beak each piece of paper from a pile inside a box. Soon everyone becomes aware of the evil behind the façade of respectability of their fellow citizens, and that leads to feuds and enmities. Zé Nó returns to his earlier town with a sack of money. He proposes to Carmen, whose father is in a terrible financial situation, and sees Carmen's marriage with Zé Nó as a way out of his troubles. Carmen likes Zé Nó but is not attracted towards him; thus, she does not at first feel inclined to accept the marriage proposal. At her father's insistence, however, she accepts it. At the wedding reception, Mexerico plays a prank on the newlyweds and their guests: his wedding gift package when opened releases little mice which spread across the ballroom. After the mice are gone, Mexerico offers Zé Nó another package which he says has talcum powder which will take away the smell left by the mice. But it is actually itching powder which makes all the guests scratch themselves. Zé Nó returns to the small town where he made his fortune to collect Pelanca. By this time, the townsfolk have turned their rage against Zé Nó for seeding strife among the people. When Zé Nó shows up there, they chase him and he must hide from them. He and Pelanca leave town as fast as they can. Zé Nó then employs Pelanca as a maid at his home. Some days later, Zé Nó invites his wife Carmen to go out to the beach with him, but she says she prefers to stay at home. Pelanca then talks to her and scolds her gently for not going out with Zé Nó. After a while, Carmen's former school friends appear at her house and ask her out to the beach, where they hold a 'surprise' for her. Carmen decides to go with them, with plans to join Zé Nó at the beach. Once there, however, another devilish scheme by Mexerico unfolds: they take Carmen on a motorboat ride and then dump her on a stationed boat inside which is her high school sweetheart. Carmen gets furious and jumps to the sea, but before she can do it Zé Nó, who is looking through his binoculars from the shore, spots her and her former boyfriend inside the boat. When he gets home, they fight and she returns to her parents' house. The school principal happens to be visiting there, and he convinces Carmen to make up with Zé Nó, if she really likes him, which she says she does. Zé Nó says he will donate to charity all the money he earned with the 'clairvoyant' tickets, and he will only take Carmen back if she does not mind being poor. She says she doesn't. Zé Nó goes back being a gardener at the same high school he worked at before.

*end of spoilers*

This is probably the weirdest of all Mazzaropi movies which I have seen. The insertion of musical numbers at the most unexpected moments makes it even more bizarre. Every character except the female protagonist 'Carmen' seems to be a scumbag in this movie; as the film approaches the end, however, the film struggles to twist things in such a way that evil is concentrated in one single character ('Mexerico'), making him a sort of dramatic scapegoat. I didn't find this movie funny, let alone dramatically moving. But it is eccentric enough to arouse one's curiosity.

Rating: 32

Money from Home (1953)

Second viewing, at least; previously viewed on January 31, 1989, and possibly also earlier than that.

A gambler finds himself in debt to a gangster. The gangster tells the gambler that he must prevent a certain horse from entering a race. The gambler is forced to accept the mission. He passes his veterinarian cousin off as the hired jockey for the horse. Meanwhile they keep the real jockey, an alcoholic, locked up. But the gambler falls in love with the horse's owner.

This is not as bad as I thought upon my previous viewing. The most interesting section of the movie is the beginning, when some picturesque characters from the New York underworld are paraded. What follows is a formulaic comedy vehicle for the starring duo, but it has some funny moments and overall is not hard to watch.

Rating: 39 (up from 30)

Return from Witch Mountain (1978)

Sequel to Escape to Witch Mountain (1975). The two ESP- and PK-endowed kids from outer space are having a vacation in town, and are spotted by a duo of crooks who kidnap the boy with the intention of exploiting his psychic gifts. The girl befriends a gang of truant boys who help her locate and rescue her brother.

Less than electrifying adventure for juvenile audiences. While not an unpleasant watch, the parade of SFX-enhanced paranormality is unable to lift the film off from the strictly routine fare ground. I was left with a question from the first film, namely, why must they use a flying saucer to move to and from Witch Mountain, but it remained unanswered. Also unmet by this film was my curiosity about their "community", which is never shown.

Rating: 40

Toivon tuolla puolen (2017)

English title: The Other Side of Hope

The faithful translation of the title is reported by one IMDB user as being Beyond Hope. I cannot vouch for that. Google Translate gives it as I Hope Beyond That, which is somewhat different.

A Syrian refugee arrives in Helsinki. He applies for a staying permit, but is rejected. He escapes from his confinement just before his deportation and starts working at a restaurant whose new owner recently separated from his wife.

Bland fiction on the immigration topic which seems to be based more on propaganda than on the immediate reality of Europe. Its protagonist is conveniently without cultural particularities: he has abandoned his religion (though not faith per se), and has no political affiliation. On the other hand, Finland is depicted as having a xenophobia problem, at both governmental and street levels, an assumption which contradicts every personal and news-type report to my knowledge. As one comment on IMDB has implied, perhaps the writer-director's secret intention was to produce a warning against immigration to his country, and pose as a humane liberal while doing it.

Rating: 35

Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986

Two orphan kids endowed with telepathic and telekinetic powers are taken in custody by a man passing off as their uncle. This man works for a millionaire who wants to exploit the kids' powers for monetary gain. The kids escape and are helped by a solitary man driving a motor home.

Silly yet entertaining adventure for younger audiences. Although I always feel a little cheated by characters who use unrealistic powers to escape their predicaments, this film is so well made and moves at such an engaging pace that it is easy to overlook this aspect of it. There is not much to be said about the plot or the characters. This is, for better or worse, basically an action movie without further pretensions.

Rating: 57 (down from 63)

Comanche (1956)

The Comanche are raiding Mexican villages. The U.S. government has signed a treaty with the Mexican government by which the Comanche must be made to return to U.S. territory and stop their raids. An American emissary is assigned to meet with the Comanche chief and convince him to sign a treaty, but there is dissension amongst both White and Comanche.

B-Western with some long stretches of dialogue and a very conventional and predictable plot. Nestor Paiva does a very good Walter Brennan. The liberal-slanted plot portrays the Comanche in a favorable light, excepting a few bad apples amongst them. Their chief has enough good sense to admit they are better off making peace with the stronger White. Thus, the film's unstated assumption is that the pre-condition for a situation where diplomacy beats violence is a history of putting violence over diplomacy, without which Whites wouldn't be in a stronger position.

Rating: 32